Padel in the US is where Pickleball is in Europe: just starting out. Whilst there are pockets of the US where Padel is already established – like Florida – overall, the sport is at the beginning of its journey.
To put this in perspective: the U.S. currently has only ~180 padel courts and about 100,000 players, whilst Pickleball has exploded to nearly 20 million players and thousands of courts nationwide. By contrast, Europe is the opposite story — with over 42,000 padel courts and tens of millions of players, it’s the clear growth leader in racket sports.
My feeling though is that Padel will have a more difficult time breaking into the US than Pickleball will have in Europe.
Numerous facilities in the US have invested heavily in converting their tennis courts to PB in recent years and, whilst this sport is thriving, these facilities are going to be reticent to invest in another, yet-unproven, sport (Padel) that costs substantially more to build and takes up more real-estate… hence less income per square footage.
In Europe, there are so many clubs and facilities that do not have the money to invest in one Padel court but can easily spare one tennis court for 4 pickle ball courts.
(Originally published on LinkedIn)
